


Athlete, Student, Wellie Extraordinaire!: Caitlin Farmer

by thatfamoushappyending (betsytheoven)



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Interviews
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-31
Updated: 2015-08-31
Packaged: 2018-04-18 06:22:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4695473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/betsytheoven/pseuds/thatfamoushappyending
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Drink deeply from knowledge’s well.” While many Wellies strive to follow our school motto, few succeed to the degree that Caitlin Farmer has. A sophomore neuroscience major and setter for the Women’s Volleyball team, Farmer ravages the court and still manages to ace her classes with ease. The real question is: how does she do it? (continued on page 4) -The Daily</p>
            </blockquote>





	Athlete, Student, Wellie Extraordinaire!: Caitlin Farmer

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for [The OMGCP fanzine: Chicks, Please!](http://archiveofourown.org/works/4694924)
> 
> Fair warning: we know very little about Caitlin Farmer, so 98% of this was headcanon central. (Also, thank you Fer for helping me create such a rad Caitlin. You're awesome.)

**Athlete, Student, Wellie Extraordinaire!: Caitlin Farmer**

_“Drink deeply from knowledge’s well.” While many Wellies strive to follow our school motto, few succeed to the degree that Caitlin Farmer has. A sophomore neuroscience major and setter for the Women’s Volleyball team, Farmer ravages the court and still manages to ace her classes with ease. The real question is: how does she do it? (continued on page 4)_  ---- The Daily _Editor-in-Chief_

 

Caitlin jogged her way over to Annie’s, one of the better coffee shops on campus, and found the girl who always wore the tortoise-shell glasses from her Anatomy class sitting at one of the tables near the back. She waved her over, so Caitlin weaved her way through the tables to sit down.

 

“Hi, thanks so much for meeting me here. I got you a caramel latte, is that ok?”

 

Caitlin nodded and gratefully accepted the free coffee. The girl pulled out a recorder and notebook, with The Daily logo on the top. While Caitlin usually prided herself on knowing names, even of obscure classmates, she had never caught this girl’s name.

 

“This is horribly embarrassing, but I don’t think I ever caught your name?”

 

“Oh that’s hardly important, I’m just the editor in chief for The Daily. You are what is important, Miss Caitlin Farmer. I’ve been wanting to run a story on you for the whole semester, and you set up, pardon the pun, the perfect story with your phenomenal gameplay last week against Yale.

 

Tortoise Shell Glasses girl leaned forward, head in her hands while Caitlin flushed deeply.

 

“I would hardly say that. I’m just the setter, the win last week came from the entire team working together beautifully.”

 

The girl nodded and scribbled something down on the notepad.

 

“Modest and talented, how charming! Now, tell me a little bit about yourself. Where are you from, your major, hobbies, and so on.”

 

She ducked her head. This was why she normally avoided interviews with The Daily, because while she was prepared to talk volleyball plays all day, she was never sure what to say when they wanted to talk about her personal life.

 

“Well, I am from Monterey, California and I came out to Samwell to study Neuroscience because of the amazing program here, but also because I received a scholarship for volleyball. In the way of hobbies... well I certainly can’t say cooking, as I practically burnt a house down once trying to make dinner. I’m pretty good at Mario Kart... I spend a lot of time watching Netflix, does that count?” She laughed softly as the bespectacled girl nodded along and chuckled a bit.

 

Still scribbling what looked like hieroglyphs on the notepad, Tortoise Shell Glasses girl asked, “Why neuroscience? And how is that going?”

 

She played with the coffee mug for a moment, unsure of what to say.  

 

Her Dad had passed away a few years ago because of a degenerative neurological disease and at the time, she had no idea why a parent was suddenly stolen from her. Her Papa tried to explain it, multiple times in fact, but she didn’t get it. One night, she typed the name of his disease into Google and spent six consecutive hours on a variety of web pages and medical journals until she had a firm grasp on what had taken her Dad.

 

But it wasn’t so much that her Dad died of a neurological disease and therefore she wanted to make peace with herself by preventing others from losing loved ones, as it was the curiosity that she discovered when doing the research that night. About an hour into her research, she probably had enough information to hold a conversation about the disease. But she wanted to know what demographics were more susceptible, how the disease occurred--was it genetic?, and the questions only kept coming.

 

“I uh... I just discovered a fascination with the brain and how it works back in high school and I guess I just never wanted to stop learning about it? I could stay up for hours trying to understand new diseases and medical treatments.”

 

“Is that what led you to become so involved in the Pre-Med Club on campus?”

 

With a soft sigh and small smile, Caitlin nodded, and brought up her involvement on campus, successfully deflecting the girl’s inquiries away from painful scars.

 

As Caitilin drained her caramel latte, Tortoise Shell Glasses girl leaned back and looked at her notepad with an impressed grin on her face.

 

“Let me make sure I have all of this correct. You are involved in 8 clubs, in addition to making the Dean’s List both semesters last year, being a successful athlete, and managing to date? How in the hell do you manage? Do you require sleep like the rest of us mere mortals?”

 

“It’s uh, it’s actually 9 clubs? But I do sleep-- I even eat too!” they both laughed a bit, their interview quickly starting to resemble a conversation instead of an interview.

 

“Honestly, I try to only get involved with things that I am passionate about, and I have a lot of planners and emotional support. People always discount the importance of emotional support, and I can safely say I am only surviving my current schedule because of my friends, my teammates, and my boyfriend.”

 

She really hoped that her grin didn’t give her away. Even though they had been dating for almost a year now, she still often found herself wandering across River Quad with a grin on her face because Chris sent her a string of excited emojis for one reason or another.

 

One time, she sent him a picture of her name written on the board and he had been so concerned until she explained that her professor thought it was motivating to put on the board the names of the students who got a perfect score on the midterm. For a moment, she thought Chris was going to combust, with the string of texts that were simply “!!!” before he called her to congratulate her.

 

Oh man, and when she showed up for all his games with signs? It was like the guy had never had anyone cheering just for him in the stands. She always had to reassure him that it was actually no problem at all, while he promised to attend every single home game he was around for. He was possibly the cutest thing on the planet and one of the few people who could get her to smile on a rough day.

 

“If I recall, your boyfriend is a member of the Men’s Hockey team, right? How well do you get along with them?”

 

She had to bite her tongue to keep from immediately chirping some of the guys. “They are all great and have been very welcoming. It’s a nice family over at the Hockey Haus, and as you know, there is always something amazing cooking in their kitchen, so it’s really fun.”

 

Tortoise Shell Glasses girl snorted, “Oh man, Bitty’s pies are to die for. Haven’t had any since my boyfriend graduated.” Caitlin gave her a confused look, causing her to elaborate, “Oh, my boyfriend was the goalie before your boyfriend got here. John Johnson?”

 

Caitlin nodded, vaguely remembering Chris saying something about a red and a blue pill from the previous goalie.

 

“Now, where do you see yourself in five years?”

 

With a laugh, Caitilin leaned forward to answer, “Isn’t that the question of all our college careers?”

 

~~~

 

“Caitlin Farmer is proof that you can excel at any and everything so long as you have the passion to get you there. We should all seek to be as great a Wellie as she.”

 

Chowder was almost tearing up as he read the last lines of the article that the Tortoise Shell Glasses Girl had written. She was sitting in the Haus kitchen when he, Dex, and Nursey burst into the kitchen with a copy of the Daily held aloft, demanding to read it aloud.

 

“She’s a bit dramatic, huh?” Caitlin shook her head and tried to focus on the slice of pie in front of her.

 

An offended squeak came from her left. Chowder looked like she had just said the Sharks were the worst team in the league (which she would never say, she would be disowned from her family).

 

“Farmer, she didn’t even touch on all of the hard classes you’re taking, while being an officer in Pre-Med club, and doing extra exercises after practice! Never once does she say that you go above and beyond what is expected, even though that is the truth!”

 

Even though it had almost been a year, Caitlin was never sure if she would ever get used to Chowder’s kindness. He was excitable and filled with more energy than a tiny puppy, and so wonderfully genuine that it still caught her off-guard sometimes.

 

“Thank you.” Caitlin didn’t really know what else to say, but Chowder seemed to get it. He always did.

 

The Haus front door slammed, and Ransom walked into the kitchen. “Hey, Farmer! Did you understand what the hell was being said in O-Chem today? Because I kind of zoned out in the middle and now I might fail the course.”

 

Chowder’s teammate dropped into a chair across the table from her and started pulling out his class notes.

 

“Oh yeah, it was actually really cool. So ok, here are some drawings I made of what Mrs. Todd was demonstrating. What really mattered was this cool little spiral over here...”

 

Twenty minutes later, she was flipping through their O-Chem textbook to find better diagrams to explain the concepts to Chowder, Dex, and Nursey, who had been lost from the second she started dissecting the drawings in her notes. It wasn’t until Dex and Nursey tapped out to go play Mario Kart that she realized Chowder wasn’t paying much attention either.

 

“Ah, sorry. I kind of got going there...”

 

Chowder bolted up in his chair, “No, no don’t stop! I don’t get a lot of what you’re saying but you were having fun!”

 

That made Caitlin sit up a bit straighter. She was having fun. None of this was what she had planned for herself when she accepted Samwell’s offer, but she wouldn’t trade this for the world. Her happy place was on campus, with her teammates sending her a constant stream of texts, in a house (Haus, pardon her) with a bunch of hockey players, trying to teach her best friend and boyfriend about science and her passions.

 

“Thank you, Chowder.”

 

He smiled at her but looked slightly confused, and it took all of her willpower not to just cuddle the hell out of that boy.

 

“For what?”

 

She smiled and grabbed his hand, “For letting me be myself. For encouraging me to be happy.”

 

Bitty was probably trying to contain his squealing over by the oven, which would explain why the kitchen was so quiet at that moment. Chowder was solely focused on her though as he shook his head vehemently.

 

“You didn’t need me for that though. I may help sometimes, but this,” Chowder gestured to the copy of The Daily sitting on the table, “this is all you. You’re amazing.”

  
Who wouldn’t believe a face like that? She was pretty amazing.

**Author's Note:**

> Please come squeal at me about hockey nerds over at [my CP tumblr](betsytheoven.tumblr.com)


End file.
